Increasing seawater intrusion into the intricate system of rivers and streams in the Mekong Delta is affecting freshwater supplies and threatening its hugely productive rice and sugarcane fields and fruit and vegetable gardens.

Since 2016, farmers in Cambodia’s Battambang province have been facing severe drought that has resulted in decline in rice production, deaths of livestock, and loss of livelihoods. The author explores whether building more reservoirs is a solution to help farmers cope with the impact of droughts that are recurring with increasing frequency in Cambodia and the Mekong Region.

In recent decades the Mekong region has witnessed a rapid development of large-scale hydropower projects in the name of energy security, economic growth and sustainable development. Yet do these justifications outweigh the social and environmental costs, and are these justifications even genuine?

As climate change intensifies, urban citizens in coastal cities of Southeast Asia are facing more regular and more severe flooding. In this article, Quynh May shares some of the daily challenges of people in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam who are struggling to have a normal life while facing flooding. She asks what should be done?

The herding communities of the Tibetan Plateau are facing many struggles to protect their grasslands and herding livestock that are integral not only to their livelihoods but also their culture and identity. Mkha Be explains the changes and challenges facing the herding communities through a nomadic woman’s personal story.

Folktales, legends, and traditional stories that local community members tell represent their experiences and views with the environment. They play an important role when the community utilizes and sustains natural commons such as water, fisheries, forests, minerals, and land, and are in fact themselves valuable and irreplaceable commons.

Climate change already affects Thai communities who rely on the Mekong River’s natural resources. Areeya Tivasuradej shows how the Clean Development Mechanism by supporting hydropower dams that devastate communities and ecosystems is a false solution to climate change, and calls for a new approach following Climate Justice principles.

Lao PDR is aiming high by promoting casinos mainly with Chinese investors. But these monumental structures are endangering local livelihoods, dispossessing farmers of land and inviting armed crime into previously quiet rural areas. Melinda Boh explores these dubious investments taken in the name of rural development and reducing poverty.

Governments and developers promote large hydropower as clean energy necessary for economic development. In most cases, developers prepare Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). But rather than raise questions about whether the dam should be built, EIAs become the first step to enable “river grabbing”

Commons Comment

The Dawei Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in Myanmar will establish large-scale industrial estates for export-led industrialization. Japan has recently expressed interest in investing in the Dawei SEZ. Japan’s economy has been built on this model of industrial development. This development model has caused enormous environmental and health impacts.

Minari Tsuchikawa questions whether it is appropriate for Japan to impose this type of “development” model on Myanmar rather than allow the people of Myanmar to find their own path of sustainable development.